Team SoloMid vs. NRG Esports – NA LCS 2016 – Week 9 – Day 2 – Preview

Team SoloMid vs. NRG Esports are matched up against each other for the North American League of Legends Challenger Series to be held Sunday March 20, 2016 in Day 2, Week 9 of the competition.

Hauntzer : Impact

Svenskeren : Moon

Bjergsen : GBM

Doublelift : Altec

YellOwStaR : KonKwon

Chasing 3rd place if either CLG or C9 slip up, TSM are looking for the highest possible seeding for playoffs, so that their route to the finals is as smooth as possible. With an amazing roster, their shotcalling has been their downfall, from baiting Baron poorly, to fighting too much when Hauntzer could simply be splitpushing. YellOwStaR is a great shotcaller, as he has years of experience and knows what to do, and when, but there are rumours that Bjergsen, after being TSM’s shotcaller for around 2 years, is still commanding the voice comms. If he can pass the mantle onto Yellowstar, then he can focus on his individual skill, and can become the best mid laner in NA again, like he was for the past two years or so. The rest of the team are mechanically very good, they just need to arrange their pieces in the right way to get the win consistently.

For NRG, only 1 win behind TSM, they could also go for that 4th place spot, but have been inconsistent in their play. GBM can easily make plays form the midlane, and if they can shut down Bjergsen, while snowballing GBM, NRG could be looking at a great game from there on in. However, their bot lane has been rocky, and could lose hard to that of TSM. They could attempt a lane swap game, to trade towers and skip the early game, putting them into the mid game skirmish section of the game, where the chaos playstyle they use seems to work best.

Overall, I think this game could go either way, depending on if either team really shows up on the day, but I’d give the edge slightly to TSM.